This morning, Paramount held an exclusive screening of footage from Zack Snyder's Watchmen, which we were fortunate enough to see. The director was on hand to give some background on the movie - he said that Warner Bros (which is handling the movie in the US) was keen to update the 1980s-set story and give it some major overhauls, but he nixed that - and introduce about 30 minutes of footage from the film. The clip descriptions that follow will include minor spoilers for those who haven't read the graphic novel:
Clip 1
Snyder started by showing the opening 10 minutes of his movie, which really don't mess about in getting straight into the story. We're immediately in the apartment of The Comedian, the man whose murder kicks off the narrative. He's minding his own business, watching a TV news programme about the possibility of Russian nuclear attack and the possibility that Dr Manhattan's (of whom more later) powers might be making the US more of a target, rather than less. Then a shadowy figure bursts through the door and a bloody punch-up ensues.
The punch up is terrific. It's all contained within The Comedian's very small apartment and every inch is used as a weapon. The Comedian is smashed through coffee tables, against the fireplace, through a kitchen worktop, all the time grabbing at anything he might use to defend himself. Although these characters aren't possessed of any real powers Snyder has chosen a slightly heightened reality, given them a strength that verges on super-human. So, if one of them punches a wall, the wall breaks up, rather than leaving them jumping round the room gripping their bloody fist. There's faithfulness to the graphic novel - the moment The Comedian is thrown through a window is ripped from the pages - but Snyder's inserted his own tricks and stylistic flourishes.
Then follows the best piece of footage we were shown, one completely of Snyder's invention. The opening credits act as a prologue to the story. So we begin in the late 1930s, when the first costumed crime-fighters appear. We see Hooded Justice, Silk Spectre and the rest of the Minute Men as they catch baddies and face press adoration. Then we see the public turn on them, with some retiring, some being murdered and others going mad. Nixon comes to power; Dr Manhattan is created and the group loosely known as the Watchmen assembles. All this is intercut with scenes showing the passing of time with the use of major historical events, with Watchmen characters cut in. Lesbian crime-fighter Silhouette is shown kissing a nurse in a recreation of the famous shot of a sailor embracing a nurse at the end of WWII; we learn that Lee Harvey Oswald may have had nothing to do with JFK's assassination; and the hippie movement is blasted away and the Cold War looms. It's a wordless, very visual sequence, so rather hard to describe, but it's a masterful introduction and a great primer for the many who'll be seeing this without the benefit of reading the book.
Clip 2
Next we saw the backstory of Dr Manhattan (Billy Crudup), told after he's scarpered to Mars to get away from all those darned pesky humans and their mundane ways. This sequence is very close to the comic book depiction. He starts as Jonathan Osterman, a scientist who's just met a new squeeze, who he also works with on some scientifice experiment involving a big chamber and lots of sparks. When he accidentally becomes trapped in the chamber, he's zapped with sciency rays and disintegrated. His gradual reappearance as a nervous system, a skinless musculature and then a big naked blue bloke look exactly as they did in Dave Gibbons' drawings. Oh, and for those who wondered how the film would deal with Manhattans frequent nudity: it's dealt with by just putting it all out there, swinging free. Yes, we've seen the little Doctor.
Clip 3
The final clip was much briefer, showing the second Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson) breaking Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) out of prison. It's here we see how Snyder has beefed the comic book up to something more cinematic. What, if we remember correctly, was a bit of a skirmish in the book becomes a massive punch up on film, with Nite Owl II leaping in the air and kicking seven shades out of anyone in his way and Silk Spectre showing herself expert at some kind of martial art, apparently specifically designed for ladies in stilettoes and impractical PVC leotards. It's a deviation from the book, but it works. You really get the sense that the characters are pumped up on resuming their crime-fighting duties and that they overzealous fighting comes from years of holding back. The room, which included many
And that was it for the Watchmen presentation. Snyder gave a short Q&A with the comic's artist Dave Gibbons afterwards, although a lot of what they discussed was previously known. The ending has changed (we won't tell you how), but it's true to the message of the book and, says Snyder, actually made more sense for the story. Also, the film will be around 2.5 hours long, with a longer cut expected for DVD. Snyder already has a 3 hour cut and says that could swell to 3.5 hours with the Black Freighter comic book story included (that's a comic book within the comic book that echoes the themes of the larger narrative, for those new to this. However long the film turns out to be, we want to see it NOW.
Olly Richards
